Hi Tweets,


Dennis Paulson says:

(stuff chopped)

>But can you tell me the real value to either the listers or
>the rest of the world in driving all the way across a state to see an
>individual bird (to add to their state list, of course) of a species they
>may have seen again and again and again in the next state or a few years
>earlier when they lived across the country? What does this add besides a
>check in a box?

I can't say about value in the wider scheme, but there's a wonderful irony.

What tickles me is that for every migratory incompetent that shows up in a
particular area, there is a migration of listers to that area the size of
which is directly proportional to the migrational incompetence of the bird.
What if some listers can't find *their* way to the bird?. The out-of-range
leading on the out-of-luck. (grin)

Seriously, I know that not all extralimital birds are there because they
fell out of the nest onto their heads when they were young, but because some
are following programming that compels them to seek potential new
forage/breeding areas, some are waifs displaced by human or natural habitat
destruction, some are storm-blasted survivors, etc.

I like to think, out of pure anthropoetc., that some are just poking around
out of pure curiosity.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
michael_price at mindlink.bc.ca